In A speech on July 4th, Tony Blair admitted that the government too often came across as managerialist and technocratic. Nowhere has it displayed these characteristics more than in its obsession with targets to improve the public services. Speaking on the same day, Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, accepted there had been too many targets and said that delivering better public services was not like delivering pizzas. So is the government now easing up on targets? Not as far as those who have to meet them are concerned. Peter Neyroud, chief constable of Thames Valley Police, says "there is absolutely no rowing back from targets whatsoever". Tony Wright, chairman of a committee of MPS that has been examining targets, says: "organisations on the ground are groaning under vast numbers of targets".
展开▼
